Oil well surveying instrument



Nov. 29, 1932. w. M. SMITH ET AL 1,889,114

OIL WELL SURVEYING INSTRUMENT amena-v01 NOV. 29, 1932. W M, SMlTH ET AL 1,889,114

OIL WELL SURVEYING INSTRUMENT Filed July 19, 1930 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 @f "im NOV 29, 1932- w. M. SMITH ET AL 1,889,114

OIL WELL SURVEYING INSTRUMENT Filed July 19. 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Nov. 29, 1932. w. M. SMITH ET AL 1,889,114

OIL WELL SURVEYING INSTRUMENT Filed July 19. 1950 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Patented Nov. 29, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFI-ICEl WAYNE M. SMITH .AND KENNETH W. HALI/Y, OE SANTA. BARBARA,

OIL WELL SURmING INSTRUMEN Application filed July 19, 1930. Serial No. 469,217.

Our invention relates to instruments for measuring angular deflection and has particular reference to instruments for measuring the angular deflection of bores, such as wells or the like, swung into the earth.

During the process of boring wells suoli as oil wells, the penetration of the boring tools through various strata causes deflection of the boring tool so that the bore, instead of extending vertically, as it should, becomes deiected and the bottom of the bore is sometimes disposed at a considerable 'distance from the true vertical line from the top of the well. It is essential that the location of the bottom of the well be determined and while various methods havev been proposed for measuring the deflection of the bore from the vert-ical7 the previous devices have been inaccurate and unwieldy to handle, making the survey of a Well a laborious operation without assurance that the nal result will be correct.

lt is, therefore, an object of our invention to provide a device for measuring the deflection of a well bore which will determine not only the angular deflection of the bore from the true vertical, but will also measure the direction of the deiiection.

Another object of our invention is to pro- Y* vide an instrument for surveying the hores `of wells in which the direction and magnifrom the true vertical in which the measure-l ments may be taken at predetermined time intervals, allowing the time between the intervals to be utilized for placing the instrument in a new position in the bore.

Another object of our invention is to pro'- vide a device for readily determining the horizontal rotation of an element which hasl 1 the magnitude of the deflection of the bore at been lowered into the bore. v y

Our invention will be described with rerereiice to the accompanying drawings, wherein i Figure 1 is a front elevation of our surveyv ing1 instrumentshown partly in section.

igure 2 is a side elevational view of our surveying instrument.

construction utilized in our surveying instrument. v A

Figure 4 is a detail plan view showing the manner of mounting the plumb-bob in our instrument. l

Figure 5 is a detail view of the registering base of our instrument.

VFigure 6 is a detail view partly in section of the timed registering device utilized with our invention.

Figure 7 is a detail sectional-view taken along line 7-7 of Figure 2.

Figure 8 is a perspective view of the horic zontal angular determining device used with ,zo

our invention. Y

Figure 9 isa detail view showing the citing i instrument employed in practicing our invention.

The direction and configurationof a well bore may be measured by lowering an instrument into the bore. which will register the magnitude of the deiiection ofthe bore from the true vertical and which will also'register the direction of such deiiection. Such an instrument attached to a tool string and lowered into the bore may be positioned at various depths of the bore so thatthe deflection at any particular point may be registered.

Hence, a device which can be attached to a 85 tool string andlowered to a desired position with the instrument so arranged that while the instrument is stationary at the desired position` the angular deflection of the instrument may be registered and may be compared eo with thehorizontal rotation through which the tool string has moved in reaching this desired position. Thus, if an instrument attached to the tool stringis lowered, say 20 feet, into the bore, a reading may be obtained l 95 showing the direction of the deflection and a second reading obtained, these readings bel 10 Figure 3 is a detail view of theplumb-bob i l lcontour of the bore.

`We have devised an instrument for use in measuring the contour of well bores comprising a frame 1 which may be formed in any sultable manner as by means of an angular plate 2 having a ange 3 struck therefrom with an opening 4 in the center of the flange 3 to which may be attached a plumb-bob 5, the attachment being of the form known as a universal mounting 6 allowing the plumb-bob to swing about the mounting in all directions so that plumb-bob 5 may at all times assume a true vertical position. The plumb-bob will, therefore, assume a position at which the lower end 7 thereof assumes a deiinite position with respect to a base 8 which may be secured to the frame in any suitable manner as by a yoke 9. The base member which we propose to use consists ofl a solid block 8, the upper face 10 of which presents a concave surface which parallels the motion of the lower end 7 of the plumb-bob 5. In this base 8 we provide a' plurality of perforations or openings 11 bored thereinto, substantially the entire concave surface being penetrated by the bores. These bores may extend directly downward from the surface 10 or may 'be disposed at various angles, as desired, Each of the bores constitutes an opening into which may be projected a registering device such as a small pellet or ball which may be dropped to the surface 10 through an opening or bore 12 passing through the vertical axis of the plumb-bob and terminatingr at the lower end 7 of the plumb-bob 5. Thus, if the instrument is disposed at an angle, say of 15D, the plumb-bob would position its opening or .bore 12 over that one of the bores 11 in the base which represents a deiection of 15 from the true vertical.

Since the perforations or openings tothe bores 11 are arranged in all directions from the center of the surface 10, it is immaterial what the angular horizontal rotation of the instrument may be and there will always be one of the openings in alinement with the .lower end of the bore 12 of the plumb-bob 5.

By measuring the angle through which the instrument has rotated, as will be hereinafter described. not only the magnitude of the an- I 'gular deflection may be measured, but also the direction of the deflection may be recorded. v

Secured to the frame 1 in any suitable manner, as by a pair of standards 13 and 14. I have illustrated a housing 15 for containing the pellets which are to be dropped into the bores 11. This housing 15 comprises a suit- .able supporting plate 16 equally spaced around which are a plurality of dependent tubes 17. The instrument described is represented as being provided with six of these depending tubes 17, though it is to be understood that any suitable number may be provided. .The tubes terminate in a base plate 18 to which i's attached a second plate 19, there being a countersunk opening 20 in the plate 18 to permit of the rotation therein of-a disc 21. The disc 21 is provided with a single opening otsuch size as to allow one of the pellets 22 to pass into the disc 21 as the opening 23 is alined with anyone of the tubes 17.

The plate 19 is perforated with a series of openings extending vertically therethrough, there being a number of openings 24 equal to the number of tubes 17, the openings 24 being annularly alined with the tubes 17 but angularly disposed with reference thereto so that upon rotation of the disc 21 to pick up one of the pellets from one of the tubes17, the disc must rotate through a further anglebefore the -opening 23 in the disc 21 is aligned with the associated opening 24 in the plate 19- Thus one pellet at a time is selected from one of the tubes 17 and is passed to its associated opening 24 in the plate 19, and then the disc 23 selects a pellet from the next tube in the dinection of its rotation. Y

All of the openings 24 in the plate 19 are connected by means of suitable tubes or passages 25 with a funnel-like collector 26 so that pellets selectedfrom any one of the tubes 17 will be dropped into the collector 26, from whence the pellets will pass through a single tube 27 which extends from the collector 26 to a point immediately above the plumbbob 5.A

The disc 21 may be rotated in any suitable manner but is preferably rotated at a constant speed by means of a suitable clockwork 29, which drives through suitable gearing 30 a shaft 31 which extends upwardly through the plate 19 to engage the plate 21 to which it is secured bv means of a suitable attachin device or set screw 32. The clockwork 29 may continuously rotate the disc 21 or may be arranged to move the plate 21 intermittently through a predetermined portion of a complete rotation` as may be desired, the only requisite being that there must be a timed relation between the passage of the opening 23 in the plate 2l past the various tubes 17 so that the pellets selected will be dropped through the tube 27 at the expiration of predetermined timed intervals.

The housing 15 for the pellets 22 may be suitably secured as by screws 33 to a supporting base 34 which is attached to the supports ferent depth in the bore so that the dropping of the pellets always occurs when the instrument is at rest at a desired level in the bore.

Referring particularlyjto Figure, it will be observed that the plumb-bob 5 comprises an enlarged head 36 which is bored as at 37 to provide afunnel-like entrance to the passageway 12 which extends downwardly through the shaft 38 of the,plumb.bob structure. The lower end of the plumb-bob is formed with an enlarged portion 39 to provide the necessary weight upon the lower end of the plumb-bob to insure its ready movement to a true vertical position, the enlarged portion 3,9 being tapered to terminate in a relatively narrow 1end or point 7 which can be aligned with any of the bores 11 in the base`8.

The support 6 for the plumb-bob 5v may be made in any suitable manner, though'we have illustrated the same as comprising an annular ring 40 having trunnion screws 4l extending radially therethrough at diametrically opposite sides of the ring. The trunnions 4l may terminate in sharpened points 42 which enter and fitconical shaped openings 43 in the enlarged port-ion 36 of the upper part of the plumb-bob. The form of bearing thus described may be substituted for by suitable jeweled bearings of the type well known in the construction of measuring instruments. The annular ring 40 may be supported upon the liange 3 of the frame 1 by means of suitable lugs 44 secured/in any suitable manner to the iange 3 so as to act as supports for trunnion bearing members 45. rlhe trunnion .bearing members 45 engage conical shaped depressions in the annular ring 40, which are disposed atpoints substantially 9() degrees spaced from the trunnionsv 4l. l

It the instrument thus far. described is secured to the lower end of a drill tool string and lowered into the bore of a well, itwill be observed that by lowering the instrument to a given depth and allowing the same to remain at that depth until one of the pellets has been dropped, the angular deflection of the bore at that point will be registered by the particular one of the openings or bores l1 into which that pellet drops. The pellets are preferably each distinguished from the others by means of a suitable characterizing mark such as by inscribing a number or other suitable character upon the pellet.

For example, the pellets may comprise tiny steel balls, on the surface of which is in scribed either by engraving or etching a suitable number distinguishing that ball from all of the remainder. Thus the number of the ball which is found in any opening 1l in the base 8 when the base is withdrawn identifies the ball which wgs dropped at a certain time when the instrument was at a certain known depth.

By attaching the instrument to the end of the drill string so that it is rigid with respect'thereto, the horizontal rotational movement of the instrument as by rotation of the drill string as it passes into the bore mav be measured by sighting a predetermined point on the upper and lower ends of each section of the drill string at the time it is lowered into .the bore. For example, the

instrument may be placed upon the first length of drill string and a predetermined point on the instrument alined with a distant object. The upper end of the drill string may then also be sighted upon the distant object and this point' noted on the upper end of the drill string. Then, upon lowering the drill string, the angular rotation from the sighting` line may be noted as is indicated in Fig. 8, as by surroundingthe base of the drill string with a board 46 and driving a nail 47 in the board at a position which corresponds to the direction in which the noted point on the drill string is facing.

A suitable sighting device 50 may be employed for the sighting operation which will permit the orientation of the top of each section of the drill string with a selected sighting point 49. Y

vWhile any type of sighting device may be used, we prefer to utilize a device such as that illustrated in Figure 9, which comprises a clamp 51 formed of a plurality of hinged sections 52, 53 and 54. The sections 53 and'54 may be provided with outstruck lugs 55 to permit of the passage of a clamping bolt 56 therethrough. to secure the clamp to the upper end of the drill section 48. Slidably attached to one of the sections 52 of the clamp, we have illustrated a sighting supporting socket member 57, this member being slidable around secttion 52 of the clamp as by means of a screw adjusting device 58 having a screw 59 thereon engaging a suitable threaded portion 6() of the clamp section 52. A spring 57 a normally biases the sliding socket section 57 into close relation with the screw 59. Insertable into the socket sliding section 57 is a sighting support rod or bar 6l having rigidly mounted thereon a pair of upstandng sights 62 and 63. T hese sights may be of any suitable construction, though we prefer the same to comprise a block having anopen ing therethrough.

The block 62 which is illustrated as being nearest the clamp 5l is illustrated as being provided with its opening 64 in the form of a relatively narrow sl0t,;,while the sight 63 is illustrated as having a relatively large opening 65 therethrough in the center of which is mounted a vertically extending hair or wire 66, such as is ordinarily used to determine the hair line of. sighting instruments. TWe prefer that the distance m between the clamp 51 and the innermost sight 62 shall be such y it will be apparent that the sighting device may be readily attached to the drill string and detached therefrom, it being unnecessary that the device shall be accurately aligned before it is secured to the drill string since a rough adjustment is sufficient because of the construction of the supporting section 57 of the device, which is adjustable through a considerable arc. Thus the clamp may be placed upon the drill string in a rough approximation of its proper direction and may be aligned by suitable adjustment of the adjusting screw 59.

By recording the direction of the drill string before it is lowered into the well bore, and

recording the horizontal angle through which it rotates when it is lowered into the bore,

as by noting the direction of the sighting device 50, when the string has been lowered the exact degree of rotation of the surveying instrument may be recorded and thus the location of the pellet of a given number in one of the bores 1l in the base member 8 will correspond exactly to the angular deflection of the bore from the true vertical and also the direction of such angular deflection.

While we have illustrated and described the preferred embodiment of our invention, it is to be understood that the drawings and description herein referred to are for illustrative purposes only and we do not desire to be limited to any of the details shown herein except as defined in the appended claims.

We claim:

l. In an instrument for measuring the angular deflection of bores, a frame to be lowered into the bore, a base member on said frame having a plurality of openings therein, a plumb-bob mounted on said frame 'above said base, freely movable to assume a true vertical position under the influence of gravity, said plumb-bob having an opening therethrough, and means proj ectable through said plumb-bob into the openings in the base with which said plumb-bob is aligned at any given instantwhereby the angular deflection of the frame from the vertical may be measured.

v2. In an instrument for measuring the angular deflection of bores, a frame to be lowered into the bore, a base member on said frame having the upper face thereof perforated with openings therethrough, throughout substantially the entire area of the said upper face, a plumb-bob having an opening therethrough and mounted on said frame to assume a true vertical position under theinfluence of gravity, whereby the openling in the plumb-bob will assume a position the bore from the vertical, and means projectable through vthe plumb-bob into the opening in the base for registering the-defleetion.

3. In an instrument for measuring the angular deflection of bores, a frame to be lowered into Asaid bore to follow the line thereof, a plumb-bob -on said frame mounted for movement thereto to always assume .a true vertical position, an opening through the vertical axis of said plumb-bob, a base member on said frame immediately below said plumbbob having substantially the entire face thereof adjacent the plumb-bob perforated, the perforations radiating in all directions from the center of t-he face, so that the direction and magnitude of the angular defiection of the bore from the vertical will cause the opening in the plumb-bob to align with a corresponding perforation in the base, and means projectable through the opening in the plumb-bob and the aligned opening in the base for registering the deflection.

4. In an instrument for measuring the angular deflection of bores, aframe to be lowered into said bore 4to follow the line thereof, a plumb-bob on said frame mounted for Amovement thereto to always assume a true vertical position, an opening through the vertical axis of said plumb-bob, a base member on said frame immediately below said plumb-bob having substantially the entire face thereof adjacent the plumb-bob perforated, the perforations radiating in all directions from the center of the face, so that. the direction and magnitude of t-he angular deection of the bore from the vertical will cause the opening in the plumb-bob to align with a corresponding perforation in the base, meansprojectable through the opening in the plumb-bob and the aligned. opening in the base for registering the deflection, and time controlled means for intermittently pro-v jecting said projectable means through said plumb-bob at predetermined time intervals.

5. In 'aninstrument for measuring the angular deection of bores, a frame to be lowered into said bore to follow the line thereof, a plumb-bob 'on said frame mounted for movement thereto to always assume a true vertical position, an opening through the vertical axis of said plumb-bob, a base member on said frame immediately below said lumb-bob having substantially the entire face thereof adjacent the plumb-bob perforated, the perforations radiating in all directions from the center of 4the face, so that the direction and magnitude of the angular deflection of the bore from the vertical will cause the opening in the plumb-bob to align with a corresponding perforation in the base, a plurality of pellets each having will cause the openin a distinguishing characteristic, and means for successively projecting said pellets through said plumb-bob to said base at predetermined time intervals..

6. In an instrument for measuring the angular deiiection of bores, a frame to be lowered into said bore to follow the line thereof, a plumb-bob on said frame mounted for movement thereto to always assume a true vertical position, an opening through the vertical axis of said plumb-bob, a base member on said frame immediately below said plumbbob having substantially the entire face thereof adjacent the plumb-bob perforated, the `perforations radiating in all directions .from the center of the face, so that the directin ishing characteristic, means .for storing sai pellets on said frame, a disc immediately under the storing means, having an opening therethrough for a single pellet only, a passage connecting said disc with the opening in the plumb-bob, and means for moving said disc to align the passage with the4 storing means to select one pellet and then aligning the passage with the connecting means-whereby one pellet at a time is fed from the storing means to said plumb-bob.

9. An instrument for registering the true vertical direction including a plumb-bob apd a passageway therethrough extending along the vertical axis thereof, a base member having a concave upper face to correspond to the spherical path described by the plumbbob in its movements, a plurality of perforations in said face arranged in all directions from the center thereof, the plumb-bob aligning its opening with that perforation corresponding to the direction and magnitude of the 1deflection of said hase from the true ver(- tica Signed at Los Angeles, California, this 7th day of July, 1930.

' WAYNE M. SMITH.

KENNETH W. HALEY.

a plumb-bob on said frame mounted for movement thereto t0 always assume a true timed means for feeding said pellets one at a time from said storing means to said plumbbob at predetermined time intervals.

8. In an instrument for measuring the angular deflection of bores, a'frame to be lowered into said bore to follow the linel thereof, a plumb-bob on said frame mounted for movement thereto to always assume a true vertical position, an opening through the vertical axis of said plumb-bob, a base member on said frame immediately below said plumb-hob having substantially the entire face thereof adjacent the plumb-bob perforated, the perforations radiating in all directions from thc center of the face, so that the direction and magnitude of the angular deflection of the bore from the Vertical align with a correspon ing perforation in the base, a plurality of pellets of a size to pass through said plumb-bob each having a disin the plumb-bob to 

